I had the good fortune to speak with Molly Anders (twitter https://twitter.com/mollyanders_dev) at Devex, a publication focused on international development, concerning IRD’s APA case seeking to enjoin its suspension by USAID. The focus of the discussion is, if what IRD says in its suit is true, does the company have a chance at overturning its suspension and what does it say about the current state of USAID suspension/debarment practice.
The problem for USAID, if IRD’s statements are true, is the suspension may run afoul of the Keiwit case about Congressional interference in agency decision making. Also, the continual award of new grants and assistance funds up to an including the day before the suspension hit is extremely problematic. Furthermore, the way the agency “announced” publicly its suspension also smacks of punishment. Overturning a suspension is hard — very hard — but there is risk here for USAID. Obviously only one side of the story has been told, but as a former acting Debarring Official, I can’t believe there isn’t an administrative agreement in place yet.
The article is here: See the Devex article here